When Ms. Street decided to sign up for CPR training, she could have never thought that in just a few weeks time, her skills would be put to the ultimate test. Her heroic actions possibly saved a man’s life, and her actions should be an inspiration to us all. 

It all started a few weeks back when Ms. Street and fellow English teacher Ms. Molinelli, were out to eat at a restaurant. The waiter came over to give them their bill, when he collapsed on the floor. Ms. Street rushed into action and yelled “911” and started to perform CPR on him.

While Ms. Street was performing CPR, the other people in the restaurant called 911 and did whatever they could to help the situation. They cleared people out of the way as well as ushering the police, fire department and ambulance to the scene.

When asked how serious of an emergency this was, Ms. Street said “It was definitely a life or death situation, I checked his pulse and breath, he had no pulse or any breath”. The whole restaurant was in a panic for obvious reasons.

“It was chaos,” said Ms. Molinelli.

It took around 6 minutes for 911 to arrive and when it did, they tried to use a medical device called AED machine on him but he still had no pulse. They ended up just performing CPR before the ambulance arrived to pick him up to bring him to Bridgeport Hospital.

When asked about the man’s conditions, Ms. Street said that the last she heard he was “doing well”. It is absolutely amazing that she decided to take CPR training just weeks before. But it is even more amazing that she was able to stay calm and help this man stay alive before the medical professionals came. 

According to the Cleveland Clinic, only about 54% of people say they know how to perform CPR. The result also reveals that Americans also confuse heart attack & stroke symptoms, compromising the proper response. The clinic states that many Americans don’t have the knowledge to aid others. Until just a couple weeks before, Ms. Street was one of the people in the 46%. But because of her learning CPR it might have saved this man’s life. The training of CPR can be vital in saving lives and should be more of a common practice in our everyday lives.